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Weddingbee Blog
This past weekend, two good friends of mine got engaged at Disneyland by the wishing well, and the bride had no idea she was being photographed through it all! It happened early in the morning, so they could spend the entire day celebrating their engagement. So cute!!
Yesterday I finally put my Valentines cards in the mail for the Weddingbee swap! I didn’t really know what I was going to do, so I went on a short visit to Paper Source to look for inspiration. Since I don’t think of myself as crafty as a lot of bloggers, my friend gave me the idea of using photos. I looked for cards that had slots to put pictures in, and I really wanted to go for the traditional Valentine card look. I wanted to go for that cheesy line “Will you be mine?”
Here are some pictures of the process. My puppy (that is now my cousin’s dog) was my model, although I had taken these pictures months ago.
Recently I’ve been working on lots of hair and makeup trials. Although they’re pretty tiring (standing on your feet and staring at hair for 3-4 hours) I think it’s the most fun job I’ve ever had! This past weekend we had two back-to-back trials. I got permission to post pictures from the trial, so maybe it will provide some ideas for future brides.
Call me a guy, but I am really bad at encouraging people, complimenting others and most of all… talking about how I feel about my loved ones. I don’t know why, but I’ve never been good at saying the “I love you”s. My parents and I never really said it to each other and I just never got accustomed to saying gushy things like that. You can call me the Miranda out of the SATC girls. 
When it came to Mr. Caramel, he’d tell me all the time how I’d make him feel and he would compliment me to death. I would feel so awkward and horrible for not saying the same things back, without feeling fake or forced. It’s common to have a different love language, and words of affirmation have always been on the bottom of my list. (You can take this quiz to see what your Love Language is.) However, ever since the engagement– I have improved (yay me) but since we’ve tied the knot, there has been a new problem.
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Mr. Caramel and I were surprised when we found out that he gets an extra $200 in his paycheck per month, just for being married! He explained the process to me and of course I forgot it all, but I was pretty happy to hear that it pays to be married! (Pun intended)
I found some articles online that help explain why couples get a tax bonus when they get married. Not only do I have this to look foward to, but supposedly Americans will be getting $300-$600 checks in the mail due to the recession and under the new economic plan.
“People who did not pay federal income taxes but who had earned income of more than $3,000 would get checks of $300 per individual or $600 per couple.” - CNN
So to all of the 116 million American families out there, expect checks in the mail sometime in June! Woohoo!
On a side note, Mr. Caramel cracked a good one the other day about this, when he told me about our new finance balance per month:
Mrs. Caramel: “Hey thats cool that you get rewarded for being married!”
Mr. Caramel: “I am rewarded every day for being married 
“
Mrs. Caramel: “Wow. GOOD ONE.”
I’ve been discussing with my fashion photographer friend and my wedding photographer friend about doing a Trash The Dress shoot. I wanted to do something different photo wise rather than having me look posed and traditional. And I love my dress so much, that I want more photos of it - then I’ll dry clean it and donate it. (At least that’s the plan for now!)
But seeing that I’m 3 months married already, and hoping to get warm weather soon… I feel a bit foolish thinking that I’m so far along the road to put my wedding dress back on. Sure, it would help out my friends a bit for their portfolios and all, but is it just too late? By the way, So Cal’s weather right now is super rainy and cold!
Do you think there’s a line you have to draw to say that it’s too late for a post-wedding shoot?
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
When some people greet me, they only know me as Mr. Caramel’s wife. This is because Mr. Caramel often does public performances at church and whatnot. Mr. Caramel is pretty calm and quiet, but he can be quite the rock star.
I remember the very first time I heard Mr. Caramel’s voice, I was shocked. I thought “THAT voice is coming from that guy?” I never really heard Asian guys sing like that before. If you listen to him singing below, you may know what I’m talking about.
So it wasn’t too shocking that him singing to me was part of our engagement. After MANY months of bugging him to record the beautiful song he wrote me, he finally did it– and I’m about to share it with you all. Sorry if you’re embarassed Mr. Caramel, but this song needs to be shared! I loved everything about this song… and just knowing that he wrote this for me made it so special.
Reading other Bees’ posts about their wedding days makes me want to re-visit mine. Here are some shots of us from my bridesmaids’ cameras. They are a more accurate view of what that day was really like!
My bridesmaids’ makeup below is all done by us, and my sister, cousin and I just created our own lil side gig for Asian makeup/hair – JAC Beauty!
I know I have so much to be thankful for. For example, God has blessed with me with sacrificial friends - girls who went out of their way just to be there for me. One touching thing was when I found out that my girlfriend had broken up with her boyfriend the day before our wedding. She didn’t want to tell me because she didn’t want to ruin the wedding mood, so she acted sooo happy for me on the wedding day and didn’t tell me until I got back from my honeymoon! I was so amazed at her selflessness!
And of course, I had the best bridesmaids a girl could ask for. One of my bridesmaids had been asked to be a bridesmaid FOUR TIMES within the span of 6 months! I was her 3rd wedding, but she acted just as excited and happy for me, as if I were the only wedding she was a part of. I had so much love and support from my girlfriends.
But now that all is said and done, I can’t help but feel a bit hurt when I think about the invited guests who didn’t come to the wedding. After all the guest list cutting and MONTHS of working to make a wedding and reception happen, it just feels like some people didn’t understand that this was our one and only wedding. I know it sounds a bit whiny, but I’m wondering if any others out there felt the same way.
Since my last entry had many people commenting on their favorite cupcake place, I thought I’d bring up this new cupcake line I found yesterday at the downtown Culver City Farmer’s Market. I was just browsing by some tables when I saw two girls at a cupcake stand. One of the girls (who is really young and nice) talked to me about how she came up with the recipe, and seemed pretty anxious to get the word out about her new cupcakes.
This line of cupcakes is called Sugar Hill Cupcakes and since they haven’t opened up a store yet, they can only be found at the downtown Culver City and the Westwood Farmer’s Market. I grabbed a brochure and saw that they had some flavors I haven’t really seen in other places, like Nutella (hazelnut), Orange Cream, and Madeline. I picked up a Dark Dark Chocolate and my favorite flavor, Red Velvet. Their price is just a bit under Sprinkles Cupcakes at $3.00 per cupcake.
One of my favorite parts about our honeymoon was our trip to New York City. Why? Because it was totally spontaneous! We had a layover in NYC for a couple hours, and Mr. Caramel’s friend asked us if we could change our tickets for a later flight to hang out with him around Manhattan. We lucked out and found out that we could change our flight for the next day, for a $50 flat rate charge. *Go Delta! However, to be even luckier… when we tried paying for the tickets later, for some reason they said we didn’t have to. ??? We even asked again to double check and to be honest people, but they said we didn’t have to pay! 
Since our luggage was sent to LAX, we only had what we had on our backs to wear. However, I was wearing my pajama bottoms, so I had to go shopping. (Yes, I really HAD to!) We actually had an amazing time for only 24 hours! (thanks to our NYC guide, who seriously knew all these cool places)
For starters, we shopped at UNIQLO — a cute Japansese-Gap-like store in Soho. The prices are about H&Mish, and the store’s selection is huge! I bought a hooded coat for just over $100 and some jeans for $40. The great thing about this place is that they have FREE same day jean alterations!
I think it’s about time I finished my honeymoon entries! Here are the things that we did around Venice and Rome on our honeymoon. We only stayed 6 days but we were POOPED because of jet lag! If you’re planning on going to Europe for your honeymoon, I suggest staying longer than a week because for the first 2 days you’re wiped from the time difference!
San Marco
Yesterday was the anniversary of when Mr. Caramel proposed to me last year. (1-08-07…. I know… 187!!! Scary!) One year ago Mr. Caramel proposed and I was overwhelmed with that feeling of “OMG, I CANNOT BELIEVE I’M GOING TO GET MARRIED!”
Here is when two random people happened to show up right after he proposed, just to take our picture at sunset!
During my holiday break, I watched a total of 4 movies (I Am Legend, Walk Hard, Juno and Enchanted) in about a week. (Yikes! I know…) Enchanted was really cute and much better than I expected - I can’t seem to get the catchy and cheesy songs from the movie out of my head!
The movie touches on the concepts of romance and marriage. In one scene, Patrick Dempsey tells the main character, Amy Adams, about the concept of dating, which was totally new to her since she had been waiting for her Prince Charming to come get her to live happily ever after.
Let me tell you a very wonderful thing to look forward to - the feeling of walking out of your reception to the elevator, and then to your bridal suite. I was SO happy and relieved and felt amazingly refreshed knowing that all the nerve-wracking things were done. EVERYTHING IS DONE! All that was left was luxurious living (for a couple of days only), our honeymoon, constant celebrating and pigging out! I was SUPER excited about pigging out because everyone knows that dieting is nooooo fun!
Here are some pictures of what our room looked like:
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Mrs. Caramel, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 24, Art Gallery/Museums Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineer Engagement Date: January 8, 2007 Wedding Date: October 6, 2007 Venue: a beautiful church and hotel reception About Me: I love dancing, singing, eating out, eating in, surfing on the net, and brainstorming fantastic ideas. I also love cats, coffee, and know every quote written on Sex & the City. I'm known to laugh really loud and have really crazy hand gestures while I talk. My fiance writes songs and I take pictures. What else? We're just a crazy young couple in love, trying to make a fabulous wedding!
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